When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern play questions with Hamlet in Tom Stoppard’s inversion of Hamlet , Rosencrantz says that the score was “Twenty-seven-three.” “He murdered us,” he adds, and then says it again for good measure. As Marjorie Garber notes in her . . . . Continue Reading »
Spirit, Hegel said, works inwardly, ever forward, until “grown strong in itself it bursts asunder the crust of earth which divided it from the sun . . . so that the earth crumbles away.” Apparently addressing relentless Geist , Hegel quotes Hamlet to his father’s ghost: . . . . Continue Reading »
De Grazia still, summarizing Lacan’s claim that Hamlet is about mourning: “‘I know of no commentator who has ever taken the trouble to make this remark . . . from one end of Hamle t to the other, all anyone talks about is mourning.’ It is no coincidence that . . . . Continue Reading »
The OED indicates that the first known use of the word “psychological” is from 1812, but de Grazia says that “Coleridge had been using the term in his lectures since 1800.” He used it mainly to describe Shakespeare’s ability to characterize “habits of . . . . Continue Reading »
In her ‘Hamlet’ without Hamlet , Margreta de Grazia shows that Hamlet was not always considered a harbinger of modern subjectivity. On the contrary, Restoration critics and playwrights considered Shakespeare and Hamlet to be retrograde and rude: “In the ‘refined . . . . Continue Reading »
Two members of Shylock’s household escape his house during Merchant of Venice . Lancelot Gobbo leaves in order to become a servant to Bassanio, and Jessica leaves to be with her lover Lorenzo. The parallels between the two are brought out by the juxtaposition of the plots in Act . . . . Continue Reading »
Why does Shylock insist on getting his pound of flesh? He stands for law, for justice, and as a Jew his justice is the lex talionis , eye for eye. He wants flesh because flesh has been taken from him. When? ”My daughter is my flesh and blood” he laments when she . . . . Continue Reading »
Jim Rogers of Texas A&M writes in response to my post on the pledge of allegiance: “the Supreme Court overturned Gobitis just three years later in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, thus making it one of the most short-lived precedents ever. “That does . . . . Continue Reading »
“I delight in mercy ( hesed ) rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Thus far Hosea (6:6), reaffirmed by Jesus (Matthew 9:13; 12:7). Less well-known is the context in Hosea 6: “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What . . . . Continue Reading »
Jerome thought that heretics, like the animals on the ark, come in twos, male and female. In Virginia Burrus’ translation: “Simon Magus founded a heresy, assisted by the help of Helen, a prostitute. Nicolaus the Antiochene, inventor of all impurities, led a female band. . . . . Continue Reading »
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